Montagna Sacra

Montagna Sacra explores the traditions and rituals of the rural communities living on the slopes of the Apuan Alps and shaped by the extraction of marble, asking how a landscape influences the people who inhabit it.

Since the Roman Empire, marble has been quarried in the Apuan Alps in north-west Tuscany and shipped from the port of Carrara all over the world. For the people of the region, the expensive stone is both a curse and a blessing. For them, quarrying means heritage and prosperity. But it also relentlessly destroys the natural environment in its path, and the dangerous work in the quarries continues to cost lives.

Montagna Sacra focuses on the people and communities who live on the slopes of the Apuan Alps, their customs, traditions and rituals. The work explores the question of what influence a landscape has on the people who inhabit it. It is a portrait of a region and its people, characterised by the union of contradictions, shaped by the precious stone they extract from the mountains. Their days are long, their dogs suspicious, the air is tinged with the smell of fire. Montagna Sacra shows a province bowing to and subjugating nature. A recurring pattern of human life.